Pattern Recognition

In one of his letters Kochba signs his patronymic in Greek as Χωσιβα (Chōsiba) but this is a transliteration (what it sounds like). It is possible to express it as Κοςαβα (Kosaba), which is similar to the known Hebrew variant כוסבא (and phonetically not dissimilar to the more guttural sounding epithet Kochba). If this is placed in the Pauline warning about the mystery of lawlessness (ἀνομίας·) in 2 Thess.2.7 we get the phrase ἀνομίας·Κοςαβα (the lawless Kosaba) which in the Greek Isopsephy system equals 666. This (and the many other routes to equate 666) is hardly coincidental especially as Kochba regarded himself as the embodiment of the law (see previous posts). We can imagine that Christians would have played around with the different variants to achieve either 666 or 616 (instead of Kochba’s own 611 designations –see previous posts). This is of course a game that anyone can play – but what are the probabilities that so many routes lead to the same outcome?